


Day 22: The Great 118 Ugly Christmas Sweater Competition

by Wolves_of_Innistrad



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M, Ugly Holiday Sweaters, Ugly Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21910780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolves_of_Innistrad/pseuds/Wolves_of_Innistrad
Summary: Eddie has no idea what lies ahead when he arrives to Buck's highly touted Ugly Holiday Sweater competition at the now annual Christmas Day firefam party wearing a store bought sweater and not one he made himself.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 22
Kudos: 204
Collections: 25 Days Of Buddie





	Day 22: The Great 118 Ugly Christmas Sweater Competition

The last two Christmases, heck the last two or three years, had been so strange for Eddie. One year he has his wife back, trying to go for a second chance with his family, then she’s gone. Then the next he nearly loses Buck only for him to go above and beyond to make sure that Eddie’s Christmas, that his son’s Christmas, was as amazing as possible.

Since then it hasn’t escaped him that his feelings for Buck may be more than just best friendship, and he’s been slowly edging towards that discussion with his therapist. He doesn’t think he’s necessarily homophobic, but he’s pretty certain the culture he was raised in, Juan Gabriel excluded, wasn’t accepting of that. He’s been working past the blocks he’d put up, the walls erected by years of his father’s teachings, the Army’s drilled in instructions and rebuilding, to try to be a better man. More open, more honest, both with others and himself.

He and Buck had grown even closer this year, and sometimes, just for a moment he thought Buck’s gaze lingered too long, or his smile slipped into something more akin to a flirtatious smirk, but then he’d blink and it was gone. Eddie was going nuts trying to decipher if there was something more there.

Or more accurately, if there was a desire for more from Buck’s end because Eddie was able to admit that Buck… Buck made him happy, he made Chris happy, he seemed to fit into their family like the piece that had been missing ever since the first time Shannon left. At first he felt awful about that, told himself it was a betrayal of his wife’s memory, but he couldn’t fight it any longer. Buck made their lives better, happier, and Eddie didn’t want that to ever end.

No, the problem was Eddie wanted more. Maybe more than Buck was willing to give, so he kept his mouth shut, tried to work through his feelings, not suppress them, but deal with them in private, to make sure he and Chris got as much of Buck as they could. As much as he was allowed.

This year the 118 had decided to make Buck and Athena’s last minute Holiday meal into an annual event, and, at Buck’s enthusiastic and continuous request, they were adding a little contest to make things even more festive.

“The Great 118 Ugly Christmas Sweater Competition!” Buck had exclaimed loudly, to the amusement of everyone. He’d later renamed it to an Ugly Holiday sweater competition so as not to alienate anyone on the team that wasn’t interested in celebrating the holiday, and help include those that celebrated something else. They’d all seen the signs plastered over the walls for it, and Eddie had listened to more than one rant about the design of his sweater, offers to help other’s with theirs, and various miscellany about the contest.

For Eddie the contest didn’t mean that much, except for making sure to at least make an attempt at participation so Buck wouldn’t get upset with him. That was how he and Chris arrived to the station in matching ugly sweaters he’d bought from Target.

Buck looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel the moment he caught sight of them, but Eddie almost couldn’t focus because Buck’s… Everything, was far too distracting, and for once he didn’t mean his good looks.

No, Buck was wearing the most godawful ugly sweater he’d ever seen, if you could even call parts of it a sweater really. It looked like one arm had been taken off the sweater and had an entire Christmas stocking sewn on in place of the sleeve. The other arm was decorated like a tree all the way up Buck’s arm with what looked at a distance to be real twigs, fairy lights stringing around his biceps, a few ornaments dangling from the “tree” and finally a lit up star on his shoulder that looked more like a medieval pauldron than anything else. The front of his sweater was decked out in a small LED screen imitating a roaring fireplace, with another, smaller stocking pinned to the front with his name on it. There was a tangle of Christmas lights swathed around his waist like a belt, various ornaments and felt appliques pinned on everywhere including gingerbread men, a small Santa, more trees, a few snowmen and an angel.

Jingling menacingly, no doubt from bells that Eddie’s eyes were too preoccupied to find, Buck made his way over. He stopped, the anger washing out of his features as he gave Chris a big hug, kissing him on the forehead and laughing as the boy squealed in excitement both from seeing his second favorite person, and because he seemed to be just as enamored with Buck’s outfit as Buck.

Then Buck stood up and turned back to Eddie. “How DARE you wear a store bought sweater to MY Ugly Holiday Sweater Competition Eddie! For shame!” His finger poked into Eddie’s chest, rustling the ornaments on his arm violently, and Eddie had to wonder if they might fly off and hit someone if Buck gesticulated any more emphatically.

“First of all. This is everyone’s holiday party and not just your competition,” this earned Eddie a scoff and an eye roll, “and second, I wasn’t going to spend time creating a… Christmas monstrosity like this.” Eddie gestured to Buck’s entire torso, giving him a look.

Buck grinned. “Christmas monstrosity huh? Well, I think you’ll find that I’m going to win the competition, but I cannot let you in here looking so… Unfestive.”

“Unfestive isn’t a word Buck.” Chris laughs at the both of them and smiles.

“Bucky’s right, we need to be super Christmassy!”

Eddie sighs, staring down at his son, “traitor.”

Buck high fives Chris and a snowflake ornament flies off his arm and skitters across the floor. “I’ll grab that in a second. Anyway,” he turns back to Eddie, “you’re in luck because I actually made you sweaters just in case Mr. Grinch over here decided he was too good to take part in my favorite Christmas tradition.”

Before Eddie could even react to what he was pretty sure was an insult Chris was shrieking in excitement and he put his head in his hands. “What have I gotten into?”

“The holiday Spirit Eddie. The Holiday spirit.”

Ten minutes later Eddie walked out of the bathroom with the biggest frown he could muster.

“I hate you.”

“You love me!” Buck was teasing him, but it didn’t mean his heart didn’t stutter a bit at the thought, something he’d been fighting long and hard from letting enter his mind and now Buck had to recklessly toss it like a live grenade right into the front of his mind.

“Daddy we match!” Chris said, voice full of happiness and warmth as he ran over as fast as he could to show off his own sweater. Eddie noticed they indeed were matching.

Like Buck’s sweater they had little fireplaces on their sweaters, of course their’s were normal and not LED screens. They did have small stockings pinned to the sweater though, one that said Eddie and one that said Chris on both their shirts. Above the mantel was what seemed to be a hand stitched message of “Diaz Family.” Chris’ sweater featured Rudolph and the reindeers running around the front and back, Santa on a surfboard, a Lego snowman that was somehow attached to the front, and a firetruck that had a real working light on it.

Eddie’s was similar, with reindeers running the opposite way, a Santa with boxing gloves, A toy soldier, and a huge star that, when lit up, he instantly recognized as the “Star on the Mountain” from El Paso. That last one actually caught Eddie by surprise, looking back at Buck with something like awe instead of the annoyance and dread he’d had before he saw it. To anyone else it might seem like a regular star, but he knew Buck’s tendency to remember everything, to research exhaustively and to go overboard with any gift, any gesture. The fact he’d found out about this and recreated it so faithfully, just for Eddie, actually stole his breath for a moment.

A smile flit across Buck’s face as he played with the remote that controlled the lights on their shirts, making Chris’ firetruck light go off and on. His eyes trailed back up to Eddie’s and Eddie wasn’t sure what was on his face, but the way Buck’s smile turned so soft and shy, cheeks going almost as red as the Santa hats on his sweater, had Eddie’s heart stutter.

“Do you like it?” Buck shoved the remote back in his pocket, turning in on himself a bit, clearly nervous.

And suddenly Eddie felt himself grinning, lips split so wide he didn’t know what to do with himself. “I love you Evan...”

Buck’s eyes bugged out and he somehow went even redder. A loud, thrilled laugh sounded from Chris and Eddie stared between them, wondering why they were reacting how they were.

“What, I said I love it.”

Buck didn’t say anything, his mouth seeming to work to form words but failing. Instead it was Chris that piped up with “That’s not what you said dad!”

Eddie dropped his eyes to Christopher who was giggling and smiling like he’d just gotten the best present ever. Then they darted to Buck who was doing anything but looking back at Eddie and looked like the LED fireplace might be generating actual heat with how red he’d went and it clicked.

“What did I say…?” Eddie gulped, fear rising in his chest along with bile from his stomach. A quiet chant of “please don’t have fucked everything up Edmundo” sounded in his head on repeat as he looked between the two most important people in his world.

“You said ‘I love you Evan.’ Is that your name Buck?” Chris said helpfully.

Buck’s eyes finally refocused on Chris and he nodded, croaking a simple “yeah...”

“I...” Eddie stood stock still, terrified that saying any more might break this, might break them more than he already had.

“It’s okay Eddie it’s, uh, I should just, um… Enjoy the sweaters, they’re a gift from me to the both of you I better, uh, just, yeah, Merry Christmas.” And with that Buck ran off, jingling all the way up the stairs.

For a minute Eddie didn’t move, just watching where Buck had disappeared before he felt Chris tugging on his pant leg. He looked down to see a confused little boy staring up at him.

“Why did Buck get all weird and run away?”

Swallowing, Eddie knelt down, his hands resting on Chris’ small shoulders. “I said something I didn’t mean to say and I think it made Buck feel weird.”

“You just said you love him.”

“I know bud.”

Chris gave him a strange look. “But he knows you love him already right? We both love Buck, he’s our Buck!”

That brought Eddie up short for a moment, and he had to shake away the thoughts of Buck really being his, being theirs, and try to center himself. “Yes, but sometimes when adults say they love each other it can mean different things, so I think… Maybe Buck thought I meant I loved him in a different way.”

There was a pause as Chris thought about this. “Like how you loved mommy?”

Eddie nodded, even if he was rapidly realizing the way he felt like Buck was different than what he’d felt for Shannon, stronger, purer, born less of duty and obligation but something else he couldn’t even describe.

“Is that bad? If you loved him like mommy?”

Eddie laughed, the sound choked off as he tried to think of how to respond. “No, it’s not. But not, uh, not everybody does. Some people love only certain types of people, only women, only men, or both or neither.”

Before he can continue Chris barges in, “so do you love Buck like you loved Mommy?”

Eddie really isn’t ready for his nine year old to be asking him questions about his love life, but now that it’s out in the open, that he’s forced to think of it, he realizes he can’t lie to his son.

“Yeah buddy, I think I might.” As Christopher starts smiling, eyes going wide he adds “but that doesn’t mean Buck loves me like that.”

Christopher laughs, patting Eddie’s face. “Of course he does dad! Buck loves both of us!”

Eddie bites his lip, he wishes it were true, wishes it was as simple as that. And in the moment he wonders why it can’t be. Buck has become such a huge part of his life, of their lives that it almost wouldn’t change anything if it were true. Certainly on a physical level there might be more to that kind of a relationship, but he can’t imagine a life without Buck in it, can’t imagine no more nights spent on the couch watching movies until Chris falls asleep, no more beers and games to de-stress after a hard day, no more bedtime stories or trips to the park or buck picking up Chris from school.

He doesn’t want to take back what he said, because it’s true, he loves Buck, Chris loves Buck. Buck belongs with them, he’s a part of their family, their lives, and he wants him there for more than just weekends or days off. Eddie wants Buck there when Chris is sick at 2am, when they both have a day off and can sleep in cuddled up in the morning, at every breakfast and dinner, every PTA meeting and movie night and family outing. In his mind Buck is there for all of it, and he wants to make those fantasies a reality.

“Go get him dad!” And that’s all it takes, Chris’ unbridled enthusiasm and confidence steady Eddie’s resolve and he picks him up, hugging him as he swings him around.

“Let’s go get our Buck!” Chris shouts with joy, pumping his tiny fist in the air and Eddie heads upstairs.

It’s not hard to find Buck, his garishly festooned nightmare of a Christmas sweater would be visible from miles away even if he was seemingly hiding from Eddie. Eddie drops Chris off with Denny and Hen and Karen and winds his way through the crowd until he finds Buck. Before the other man can react he takes his hand, leading a stunned Buck away and towards a quiet corner where they can talk in relative private.

“Eddie I...” Buck starts but Eddie stops him as he turns to Buck, never dropping his hand.

“No, don’t say anything okay, or my emotionally constipated ass may never be able to get this out, alright?” Eddie smirks when Buck just nods, those beautiful eyelashes fluttering as he does so and reminding Eddie how deep in his heart Buck resides.

“Buck… What I said back there. It was an accident,” he sees Buck wince, even if the man tries to hide it, “But it’s the truth. I do love you Buck.” He lets the words sink in, for both of them, watching Buck’s eyes nearly bug out and his jaw slacken. “I love you, and I can’t stand the thought of you thinking any differently anymore. I was confused, for a little while, but I think the last few months I’ve just been lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I was in love with you. But today, when you made me this sweater, the details, the thought, the love that clearly went into this… It all hit me and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. And if you don’t feel the same tha-”

Eddie doesn’t get another word in because Buck is kissing him. Their lips crashing together like an avalanche and all Eddie wants is to be buried alive. His fingers catch in the fabric of Buck’s sweater, tugging him impossibly closer, feeling the LED screen dig into his stomach and not caring because the way Buck’s plump bottom lip fits perfectly between his own makes him groan. Then his mouth is open and Buck’s tongue is darting inside, coiling around Eddie’s and driving any thoughts out of his mind for the next few minutes.

When Eddie’s cognizance of the world beyond the feel of Buck’s body against his returns it’s to Buck whispering soft words over his lips, his jaw and it takes a moment to understand what they are.

“-ourse I Love you. God you and Christopher mean everything to me, I never thought I could have this, could have you. What did I do to deserve this I-”

Eddie catches his lips, kissing him again, one hand braced around the back of Buck’s neck. Buck keeps whispering platitudes against his lips and Eddie has to bite one, sucking on it and making Buck whine to get the other man to stop talking.

As he pulled away for breath he pressed their foreheads together, staring into Buck’s eyes. “All you had to do was be you, you’re enough, you deserve love, my Love, Christopher’s, and so much more.”

Buck sobs then, and before the tears can fall he’s kissing Eddie again.

Their make-out session is interrupted by a few gasps and a loud “I told you so!” from Chris. Buck makes to jump away but Eddie has him so tightly held to him that they both just teeter backwards before balancing out. Eddie’s eyes glance over to see Maddie, Chim, Hen and Karen staring at them with Chris smiling so bright he hopes his face doesn’t get stuck that way.

“Hey… Guys...” Buck breaks the silence, but another awkward one follows his comment as Maddie smirks, Chim gawks at the both of them and Hen turns to Karen who is also smirking.

“You owe me 20 bucks,” Karen says as she stares at her wife.

“How? I work with them everyday and I didn’t think it was anything more than a bromance.” Hen is staring at her wife in awe.

“When you know, you know.” Karen smiles, giving her wife a kiss. “You boys have a merry Christmas, I’m gonna go check on Denny.”

“I’ll come with, uh, and, uh, congrats?” Chim says as he scurries off after Karen.

Buck starts to say something at the same time as Maddie but as Eddie notices the fear in Buck’s eyes Eddie decides to bite the bullet. “This is exactly what it looks like, for the record.” His hand reaches down, twining with Buck’s, his eyes casting sidelong at the man and noting the smile plastered on his face. “It kind of just happened so, maybe give us a few minutes?”

“Alright. But I want every detail later Evan,” Maddie warns, motioning between them that she’s watching him before leading a still baffled Hen and a triumphant Christopher away towards the party.

“So we’re really doing this huh?” Buck’s voice trembles just a bit, hand gripping Eddie’s tighter as they shift to look at one another again.

“If you want? Because I want. I want you, I want a life with you in it, by my side...”

“Just by your side? Not under you? Or on top?” Buck smirks and Eddie has to roll his eyes at that.

“You are the worst.”

“I think you just made it clear you don’t believe that.” Buck leans in, pecking him on the cheek before there’s a glint in his eye. “Ok, we better get back to the party.”

Eddie quirks an eyebrow. “Can’t we stay here for another couple minutes? I kinda want to kiss you some more since it’s all I’ve been thinking about for a while now.”

Buck grins, one hand snaking beneath Eddie’s sweater, teasing at the skin above his belt, a finger running between the dip of his abs. “Eddie, you have no idea how much I want to do that… But if we don’t get back soon I won’t be able to win the contest and I didn’t spend 2 months working on this sweater to lose because my boyfriend was too horny.”

“Too horny?!” Eddie chokes on the words, feeling heat in his own face now and thankful his complexion doesn’t show it as easily.

Lips meet his own and Buck just tugs him along. “We’ve got time for you to think about sucking on my candy cane later big guy, let's go.”

“Dios mio!” Eddie just laughs, following his boyfriend back.

In a shocking twist, Christopher wins the contest, and Buck seems almost more excited than his son is. Then again, Buck did design it so he probably is counting it as a win for the both of them. None of that really matters in the end though, because the best prize of all is for all three of them, becoming a family, finding a home, gaining a parent. All of them got their wish in one fell swoop.

**Author's Note:**

> Since the story veered in a different direction than I intended and we didn't get a Buck POV, the headcanon behind why he goes all out is that Buck grew up poor and finding scraps and junk he could turn into an ugly sweater was one of the only holiday joys he had because it was the one time being poor but creative could still yield amazing results.
> 
> Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to the Buddie Discord and everyone in the fandom!
> 
> As always a big thanks to all my Wonderful Readers for all the comments, kudos and subs.


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